Rich Hoffman's Blog, page 447

May 15, 2013

IRS, Benghazi and the AP: Glenn Beck explains what all three have in common

For those who have not been keeping up with the news, here is the chance to catch up.  Glenn Beck puts his thoughts together on how the IRS scandal, the Benghazi terrorist attacks, and the AP News story are all connected.  Glenn’s thoughts are very much aligned with my own.  Watch, listen, and share with a friend.  For those who read here and hold “important” positions and know “important” people, make sure to share this with your networks so they understand what kind of game is going on.


 



With three major scandals enveloping the White House, Glenn spent time on radio this morning breaking down how they are all rooted in the idea of fundamental transformation.


“We have Benghazis, IRS, and the AP. I tried to figure out what these things were really all about. In the end what do these three scandals have in common? And what they have in common is the arrogance of transforming the world,” Glenn said.


In Benghazi, Glenn believes that Obama was trying to transform the Middle East by supporting revolution. Glenn theorizes that the CIA was involved with running guns to the Syrian rebels, a theory that has been supported by other members of the media in recent days.


“In Benghazi he was transforming the Middle East. He wanted to run guns, support the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was the one who asked us to support the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. So support the Muslim Brotherhood in the entire Middle East, run guns to the Muslim Brotherhood through Turkey into Syria and cede revolution, not just in Syria but all throughout the Middle East. This is the transformation of the Middle East. That’s his policy,” Glenn said.


How about the IRS scandal? Glenn said that’s about transforming political dissent and how the government deals with political dissent. He said the scandal specifically shows the evolution of intimidation and control from “nudge”, encouraging people to only trust sources with an acceptable bias like Al Jazeera and Huffington Post, to “shoot” where the IRS is used as a weapon to attack people’s reputation and finances.


“This scandal is about shoot. We’ve gone from nudge, to shove – which is destroy your reputation and I’m going to send the union thugs out after you ‑ to shoot. I’m actually going to use the union thugs to beat you, and I’m also going to destroy your life and finance through the IRS. I will destroy you. I will bankrupt you. When it comes to the only kind of gun the IRS has, they’ve just fired it at the American people,” Glenn said.


Finally, the AP scandal is about transforming the media.


“The progressives have been trying to transform the media for quite some time, and they’ve done a great job. We’ve all seen it,” Glenn said.


“Now, this, I want you to hear this fact clearly. This president has gone after and is prosecuting more whistleblowers than all of the other presidents combined in American history. By the way, he’s had five years. In five years he has gone after more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined. Understand that’s during the Communist hunts. That’s during Vietnam. That includes all of World War II, all of World War I and Woodrow Wilson. That includes Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. All other presidents combined,” Glenn said.


Glenn said that in order to transform the media, you first have to threaten the watchdogs who are trying to show what the government is doing. And when a few of the watchdogs are able to break through, you go after the press and intimidate them until they are unwilling to investigate.


“This is the last part of the fundamental transformation. What do all of these have in common? Transformation: Transform the Middle East, transform the First Amendment, and transform the media and the watchdogs. Transform, fundamental transformation of the United States of America,” Glenn said.


Source:


http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/05/15/irs-benghazi-and-the-ap-what-do-all-three-scandals-have-in-common/?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2013-05-15_220544&utm_content=5496211&utm_term=_220544_220551




Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com









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Published on May 15, 2013 15:12

May 14, 2013

Liar, Liar, LIAR!: Why Obama should be impeached and what he has in common with Ariel Castro

How many people are watching the terror coming out of Cleveland involving the three girls who were taken by Ariel Castro and held captive as sex slaves for 10 years and wondering how nobody detected what that diabolical molester was up to?  Castro’s friends, neighbors and even family members were unable to detect the lies Castro told and instead found themselves seduced by evil.  Castro even went to the trouble of attending family vigils for the lost girls hosted by family members pretending to assist in finding the girls knowing all along that the victims were chained in his basement and that he alone had the power to relieve the families of their misery.  Instead he looked them in the eye and told them he’d do everything he could to find the lost girls–lying openly, and boldly driven by demons most of society cannot fathom.  CLICK TO REVIEW.  Yet the same type of diabolical menace is not just present from the mouths of sex abusers and child rapists but of presidents and all their minions.  The same tendency to lie, cheat and steal is not just present in the embodiment of malevolence which is Ariel Castro, but also in President Obama and all those who serve under him.  Obama’s employees are guilty of lies, more lies, cheating, and more cheating topped off with diabolical manipulations in order to maintain a lawyers approach to “plausible deniability” and are obviously guilty of misusing the office of President of the United States for grabs of power, and domestic terrorism.  For that reason, President Obama should be impeached immediately and with great fanfare so to discourage such tyrannies from manifesting in the future.



This isn’t the first time I’ve said such things about Obama.  I suggested impeaching the President after the controversial appointment of cabinet members during 2012.  CLICK HERE FOR REVIEW.  So this isn’t anything new for me.  But if my congressman John Boehner had acted when I suggested it then the lost lives in Benghazi might have been saved, the economy would be recovering, and the IRS scandal which was happening to members of his district due to their involvement in Tea Party groups would not have occurred.  Also members of the media would not have been subjected to harassment by the Obama Justice Department under Eric Holder and countless other tyrannies that could have been averted.


Instead, Boehner calculated that my urging to impeach Obama was radical, and represented a far right-wing view-point that he dismissed.  After all, his concerns were to play golf with Obama and work toward “peaceful solutions” through diplomacy.  Boehner also enjoys appeasing the local socialites who know little about politics, or business finance, yet inject themselves into every discussion where money flows attempting to bring altruistic judgment through joined wine glasses and catered meals.  Such socialites support Obama’s brand of socialism, especially in public education institutions even though they claim to be conservative Republicans joined at the hip to Governor Kasich.  Boehner and Kasich listen to the socialist whims of such people so that the purse strings stay open for future campaigns.  After all, those socialites are “rich” and their opinions carry much weight even though the quality of their minds are detriments to society, and for politicians seeking re-election the former is more important than the later.   It is because of such social pressures, and lack of determination that people like Ariel Castro can operate in the open, and why con artists like Barack Obama can get away with audacious lies behind a socialist agenda to fulfill goals that exist outside of fathomable reality.  The blood is on the hands of those who didn’t act in the beginning hoping that elections would solve the problem peacefully, and far less grotesquely.



But elections didn’t solve the problem, and the “socialites”  planned desire to maintain community integrity with wine glasses and fund-raising dinners allowed evil to grow, not abate, and now all those involved with the great indecision are guilty of not just assisting in treachery against The United States, but in assisting evil through inaction.  The crimes committed by the Obama administration all during 2012 and thus far in 2013 are on the hands of those who failed to recognize evil hidden behind a smiling face and great charisma that only a demon from the temples of hell could generate.



It is a fair characterization to level such claims at Barack Obama because it was his administration that allowed for a terrible evil to be committed with full knowledge that it was a lie.  Obama and his White House staff blamed the Benghazi deaths on Mark Basseley Youssef, AKA Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, AKA Sam Bacile the director of the terrible film “Innocence of Muslims” which about 10 people saw in a southern California movie theater.  Other than that one public showing only a 15 minute video clip existed on YouTube at the time of the Benghazi attack.  Bacile wrote the film in prison and shot it within two months of being release with no money, no real actors, and obviously an angry rant that was shaped during his stint in prison.  Nobody saw it, and nobody cared—but the film was a symbol of free speech, which President Obama is supposed to protect.  Instead, Obama allowed Bacile to take the fall for an alleged gun running operation in Libya and the apparently intentional death of those involved to cover the tracks.  The Obama administration immediately hoped to hide their guilt behind the free speech efforts of a nothing film shown to a vacant audience counting on the American people to believe that the violence had been ignited by a 15-minute YouTube clip.  See the rest of the story at the below link.


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/innocence-muslims-filmmaker-ordered-back-prison/story?id=17673952


Obama knowingly lied to the American people and with the same type of public sincerity shown by the embodiment of evil in Ariel Castro who pretended sincere emotions during a presidential election that covered the gross abuse of his employees intentionally disgracing The White House.  They did what they have done on purpose, and they trusted that the press and American people would not advance the issue beyond their deceitful manipulations.  The worst of all these recent revelations are that the Obama administration designated a sacrificial victim in Sam Bacile who was only guilty of being a bad filmmaker, and tossed him into jail to cover the crimes of murder that was either intentionally committed by the Obama administration, or was caused by sheer incompetence.  Either way, Americans died in Benghazi due to poor leadership by the Obama administration.  Then the Obama White House tried to blame the violence on a silly YouTube video hoping that the scandal would not be pressed by the public any further.  They insulted the deceased with their hope to get away with the crime.



The reasons for the impeachment of Barack Obama extend well into a long list of Constitutional violations and are voluminous beyond comprehension.  But the worst is the intention of the administration to pick a sacrificial victim in Bacile and throw him upon an alter stepping all over his rights as an individual to preserve the collective aims of the Obama White House.  If The White House will do such a thing with one man, they will do it with any collection of people, any business, or any philosophic idea, and that makes Obama and his employees dangerous to the American experience, and detriments to all free people who want a fair chance at life success and social opportunity.  That is why Obama should be removed from office so to set the parameters for all future presidents of what is acceptable and what is not.  A failure to act on Obama and his crimes will establish for the entire future an understanding that it is alright for Presidents to behave in such a destructive fashion against the American people.  More destruction will follow of the American way of life if Obama is not impeached, and this is a reality that cannot be hidden from.  It will take courage, courage from the press, courage from the politicians that must embark on the tragic journey, and courage from the American people to look evil in the eye and act against it, instead of being seduced.  It must happen because America does not want to look at itself decades from now and wonder what happened in the same way that we are asking how Ariel Castro was able to chain three stolen girls in his basement in plain site of many people who failed to act in a way to save the victims.  To me, Ariel Castro and Barack Obama are one in the same.  Their only real difference is that Castro tortured and molested three innocent girls over a long period of time.  Obama is doing the same figuratively with the entire world, and he needs to be stopped boldly and with great conviction. One is literal, one is metaphorical, but they are both the sheer face of evil in all its destructive qualities, and bottomless malevolence.



Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 14, 2013 17:00

May 13, 2013

Peter Facinelli’s ‘The Delivery’: My explosive contribution to a new graphic novel–coming soon!

set2I have kept the clip shown below to myself for the most part until now so not to interfere with the development of the motion picture The Delivery of which I served as a film consultant and stunt double performing all the fire whip stunts.  (CLICK TO REVIEW and see pictures from the set.)  A few years ago I was at a film festival collecting an award for a screenplay I wrote called The Lost Cannibals of Cahokia and was in the middle of filming a film adaption to my novel The Symposium of Justice.    Peter Facinelli and director Rob Gunnerson were at the same festival promoting their recently completed indie film called Arc, which won all kinds of awards and is considered one of the best of its kind.  Facinelli is of course known as  Dr. Carlisle Cullen, from the Twilight series and is a current highly sought after actor in Hollywood.  After a firewhip demonstration I did for the World Stunt Association Peter and Rob approached me about flying out to Los Angeles to work on a project the two were working on called The Delivery.  The result of that endeavor can be seen below.  Essentially they had a high concept idea that they wanted to make a pitch trailer out of for movie studios in conjunction with RealD 3D film equipment development.  The Delivery is a highly dynamic universe of Angels and Demons who inhabit the bodies of men and fight in modern times with swords and fire whips.  Peter wanted me to do the fire whip work for his project which I gladly obliged.



The status of that film is Peter and Rob is developing the concept now as a graphic novel which is the current trend in Hollywood.  Hollywood likes to purchase proven commodities since budgets are so incredibly expensive, and film concepts must be fleshed out in advance these days.


The whip work I did was shopped around Hollywood with the RealD 3D stock footage captured during that shoot and became animation templates for films like Iron Man 2 and the Immortals.  Below Rob talks more about the future direction of The Delivery in an interview.  The entire interview can be seen at the hotlink below:




Interview with Robert Ethan Gunnerson


Producer, Director, Editor of the movie ARC


February 27th 2012


You’ve met with some artists to begin discussions of making “The Delivery” into a comic book, which is a cool idea in my opinion and we would love if you can hold us up to date about this. Back to my question… Have you ever thought about to make “The Delivery” as an animation movie?


Let me use THE AVENGERS as an example here. This summer THE AVENGERS will be released to what will undoubtedly be great success (at least from a financial standpoint, but hopefully from a critical standpoint as well.) It will feature some of today’s most popular actors. But let’s imagine for a moment that THE AVENGERS is a brand new idea that nobody has ever heard of. And imagine Stan Lee walking into a pitch meeting with a studio.Firewhips


“So I’ve got this movie about a group of superheroes,” he says. “One of them is called IRON MAN. He’s this recovering alcohol who has a fake heart of sorts and flies around in a suit of iron. And there’s this other guy called THE HULK. He’s a dude who gets angry and turns into a green, muscular giant who can pick up a car with one hand. And there’s THOR, a Norse God who walks around in the modern world with a giant hammer and wings on his helmet.”


By this point, I guarantee the executives in the room are saying, “Um…no, thanks. Too expensive. Too weird-sounding. Too much of a risk. Too much money. And we don’t get it. Sounds like fun. And maybe if you brought it to us with an audience already built-in, then we would talk. But to do this from scratch? No way.”


That’s what we have with THE DELIVERY. A new concept that needs time so people can get it and Hollywood can “see it.” We have a screenplay for the first movie. We have a 3-D pitch trailer for the first movie. We are talking to artists about creating either a series of comic books or a graphic novel to develop an audience. We have, in fact, talked about doing an animated series for the project. But we need to build from the ground up and handle things in the most reasonable financial fashion. It starts with artwork in still images, and then we will move forward to animation/feature films/etc. as we build followers.




The film adaption I had been working on with a film professor who loved my Symposium novel and wanted to try their hand at producing and directing a movie version of it disintegrated when they failed to produce a finished clip to show at a film festival, which was needed to secure investors.  The film professor learned the hard way why they teach film studies and aren’t actually in the “film business.”  So my project was put on the shelf awaiting more competent hands as the money window opened and closed.  The same thing happened to Peter Facinelli  even with his superstar status after Twilight.  Film studios are taking the safe bets for big budget action pictures with proven action stars and comic book material after the smashing success of Iron Man and the other Marvel Comic characters.  Peter and Rob made their pitch trailer just ahead of the “Marvel wave” so the funding window closed on them as well.



But that doesn’t change the fact that doing such things was and is a lot of fun.  Rob ran a great set and the project was a blast–literally.  Without question we captured the best three-dimensional fireball ever recorded in 3D.  They asked me to give them a 5 to 7 foot fireball that was as deep as it was wide, and I gave it to them.  We shot the scene at about 4 AM as we were on a 12 hour shooting schedule over two days.  When I cracked the fire whip sending a roaring air splitting explosion through the neighborhoods of Burbank, California the set gasp in awe as hundreds of people forgot to breathe for just a moment.  It was the climax of The Delivery trailer shoot and was worth the entire effort.  The RealD 3D execs in the director’s tent all rushed over to shake my hand as they realized what they had captured on film with their state-of-the-art camera system.    Director Gunnerson yelled………………”F**KING AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  His proclamation was nearly as loud as the whip explosion.img_3402



Many people ask me if it makes me angry to see that RealD 3D used that footage captured that night to shop their camera system around to studios and that those same studios did not invite me to do the same work for them on other film projects.  Instead they handed the footage over to animators to copy off of.  So the answer is no.  There is nothing like real life effects, and whenever possible real effects should be done in physical reality.  Animation never looks quite as good second-hand.  However, I cannot blame studios, as I am expensive.   If a kid can animate a fire whip on a computer screen while eating a hamburger from a Burger King drive thru window while copying stock footage of me more power to him.  I am happy to help promote whip art any way possible, and projects like The Delivery and everything that spawns off it do in very positive ways.


However, it might be a while before Peter and Rob can get their film “delivered” to theaters.  They need to build up a Comic Con following, and Peter understands how to do that.  It will take a little time, but will eventually get done.  Meanwhile I have to do the same with my own projects.  In the film business it is like a merry-go-round where the point of opportunity may be seen, but quickly passes as the ride spins around. The way to approach is to wait for that opportunity to present itself again on the upstroke instead of trying to act too late and force a project through before its ready.  Stan Lee at Marvel Comics spent decades building up the demand for his characters, and sometimes it takes that.  I am happy to see that Peter and Rob are planning to do the same, and to take their time with their idea—because it is theirs—and gives it value that is almost always missing from stories that are brought to production too quickly by industry barnacles who only care about the money they can make off a project.  A film must be able to do both, and in the end, The Delivery will “deliver.”



Peter Facinelli’s The Delivery Movie Trailer by CullensNews


Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 13, 2013 17:00

May 12, 2013

Identifying Evil: Learn about the sex trade industry NOW

I urge you dear reader to pay attention to this text and watch every video CAREFULLY. Learn about sex trafficking and do something about it starting with your own life.


It has taken me a few days to assemble my thoughts about Ariel Castro, the man who took at least three young girls hostage in his home and forced them to perform as sex slaves over a ten-year period, never letting the girls see the light of day.  I wish I could say that such information was shocking, but it’s not.  The case represents a complete failure in our society—a failure to recognize evil and to act on it.  Castro was very arrogant about his behavior, even maintaining emotional connections to the families of the girls he had locked in his basement—so to throw off the trail of his guilt.  The case has unsettled Americans because they fear that it could happen to anybody, anywhere, if such people could do such a horrible act right out in the open of a busy neighborhood.  The question of how Ariel Castro could have held the girls prisoner for such a long time as other people walked by down the side-walk, visited his home, and observed him from across the street and not detect the evil happening in his basement leaves Americans feeling insecure—and looking to government to assist them.  Everybody wants to know that somebody can detect such evil and prevent it from happening.



When I wrote my novel The Symposium of Justice I wrote the opening chapter based on a personal experience I had which involved the FBI and local police who were unable to find a serial rapist that was roaming my neighborhood, frightening my wife and little girls. The villain of that chapter was a character who is ironically very much like the profile of Ariel Castro in real life.  The scene takes place in the chapter titled “Scarface the Rapist.”  It was based on many late nights spent by myself looking for the rapist on my neighborhood streets because the FBI was failing to discover the predator.  The similarities to Castro and Scarface the Rapist in my novel was not a prophetic act on my part, but a profile tendency that such villain’s exhibit.  I realized in my interviews with the police at the time, and the FBI that our society had lost the ability to detect evil and act on preventing it, because most human beings had fallen victim to inaction by allowing their personal educations to introduce to their minds anti-concepts which stripped away their ability to ascertain value to people or situations.


I wrote The Symposium of Justice as a reaction to this realization.  I wanted to re-teach those willing to learn how to recognize evil and to act on their realizations.  I wanted to present to reader’s minds various scenarios that examine evil from various vantage points so that they could relate the experience to their lives and hopefully keep people like Ariel Castro in the cracks of society away from innocent children.


There is no amount of surveillance available to the CIA, FBI, the DEA, the police, or any other protective organization if the people listening have lost their ability to determine the nature of evil and to act against it.  The short answer to the Ariel Castro types in the world, who wish to assert their dominance over others with force, coercion, and fear, is that the authorities cannot save anybody.  They can only scoop up the bodies later after the crimes have happen.  It took Amanda Berry to finally escape after 10 years of captivity having to endure unimaginable acts to heroically save herself by playing her hand till just the right moment.  If she hadn’t kept her mind sane, the rest of the girls would still be chained in the basement for perhaps another 10 years and the police, along with every federal agency would be powerless to do anything about it.  They are powerless not because they don’t have the tools to detect human bodies present with heat detection technology, listening devices, and other advanced wall penetrating information gathering equipment—but because they cannot detect the behavior patterns of evil.



The human race has lost its ability to look people like Ariel Castro in the eye and determine that they are up to no good.  The human race has lost its ability to assert judgment of right and wrong.  It has lost the ability to act on behalf of goodness.


I realized this during my many interviews with federal agents and the police years ago.  So I took matters into my own hands.  I wrote The Symposium of Justice to help others re-learn how evil conducts its sinister symphonies.  I write this blog every day in the same spirit, I want to teach other human beings how to determine right from wrong and to educate them on the skills they have had bred out of them through public education and other statist institutions.  The best way to prevent the Ariel Casto types from ruining the lives of other people is to detect them as they walk down your sidewalk, or to catch them in the middle of the night outside a neighbor’s window, and to deal with them in ways that they police are powerless to engage in—due to a court system which has allowed evil to thrive by removing value assessment from society.


The way to prevent evil is to call it by name when you see it.  Evil hides right out in the open and grows by inaction do to paralysis in judgment.  Ariel Castro for 10 years lived within a few miles of the parent’s homes where the little girls were stolen, and he actively participated in pretending to help find the girls, so to rub salt in the wounds of naïveté.  Castro’s brand of evil is very similar to the type of evil seen in public schools where the fate of individual children is overlooked on behalf of institutional preservation—such as what was seen at Penn State, Steubenville High School, and Lakota elementary school where a teacher molested his third grade students in full view of a very prestigious community. Evil does not care what the demographic level of the victims are whether wealthy or poor, white or black, all it requires are people who are compliant and have lost the ability to judge good from evil.


The other aspect to this problem of evil and its social growth is the tragic result of modern society to consciously produce “beta men.”  Public schools, statist governments, religions, and the media have actively sought to destroy the traditional sense of strong, Alpha males in a misguided attempt to bring perceived equality to women.  They have sought to accomplish this by bringing down the mental standards of women toward men, and making men strive to be physically less astute and more akin to females.  This has caused all types of problems primarily where men no longer feel they should protect females in society.  Men should no longer open the door for women, pay their way during mating customs, or stand on behalf of a woman’s honor, is the modern message advocated most profoundly.  Progressive social engineers have removed “value” from the social vocabulary so to make possible equality between the sexes and this has left both males and females prone to being preyed upon by evil.


 


We currently live in a society where a man would not consider taking a bullet from a gun for a woman he does not know.  He will not fight for the honor of a female that is being pillaged by a gang of thugs.  The man has been taught to be a “beta” since he views males and females the same in value so the first impulse is indecision instead of valor during an emergency confrontation or possible maneuver by evil to harm an innocent women.  This has wrecked sexual customs in human beings forcing their inner feelings underground through pornography to manifest.  For women, they deeply yearn for a dominate man in their sexual relationships and are more prone than ever to promiscuous relationships outside the family unit to satisfy their yearnings.  For men, unable to satisfy their wives turn to pornography and innocent young girls who are too immature to judge their adult inadequacies.  This is the fuel behind the sex trade industry where many men save up their pennies to purchase “escorts” during business trips at their hotel rooms, or place dollar bills in the panties of 19-year-old girls at Vegas gentlemen clubs.  Some even go so far to fly oversees to participate in the type of youthful sex that they cannot get in the United States openly.



This comes back around to the Ariel Castro case.  Castro, too poor to fly to Malaysia, Cambodia, or China for illegal sex with 12 to 16 year-old-girls simply took them from his neighborhood.  He scouted them out as a school bus driver for a public school, and simply took the girls for his use.  His situation is no different from the other evils that drive sex trade throughout the world.  The only difference between Castro and “Millions” of other confused men is that Castro was too poor to hide his crimes from the eyes of society.  He could only afford to take the crimes to his basement, but the desire is the same as the middle-aged businessman who pretends to go to Cambodia for a “charity” event only to use such an endeavor to commit vicious evil against an innocent child sold into the sex trade by parents crushed under government statism.  The evil of Castro was not seen by friends, family and neighbors because in their minds they are guilty of the same crimes.  They may not act on their thoughts, but they think about them, which prevents them from casting opinions at the strange behavior of Castro as he entered his home with more food than he needed, placed trash in front of his home that was “excessive,” and had strangely boarded up windows.  Nobody thought to push Castro when they were associating with him about his strange habits because they had the same irregular behavior patterns allowing evil to hide itself in plain view.



I know when I wrote Symposium and started the opening chapter with a rape attempt driven by a child molesting sex addict that I was insulting most of the world population.  I didn’t expect the novel to jump to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list because it stands against most of the current values of modern society.  But for that, I am proud.  I enjoy profoundly fighting evil.  I have done it all my life and I will do it as long as I walk the earth.  I have picked fights with evil for many years and had many adventures because of it.  If I had it my way I would string evil up into the trees with my whips and beat them all like a piñata.  I don’t care if its one evil doer or 1 million, it does not matter.  But in the modern world, I would be prosecuted because I have value where evil does not.  Evil and statist government are essentially one in the same so the government will defend evil and prosecute me because evil has nothing to give—they can only take—just like government.  So I take my frustrations out on evil in my novels—particularly my Symposium, which my kids love most.  They know me, and some of the antics I have been involved in, so they understand the motives of Fletcher Finnegan from that very defined story of good against evil.



I feel bad for Amanda Berry who escaped the wrath finally after 10 years from Ariel Castro.  But I feel worse for the “millions” and millions of other girls throughout the world who are currently under the same tragic circumstances.  Evil has their lives in its hands and for such young minds they realize that there is nowhere on earth that they are safe, so they surrender their integrity to the impositions of tyranny in the form of forced sex.  The line of problems that lead to such circumstances is long, and has its roots in statist governments and lack of individual will.  This problem will not go away with the prosecution of Ariel Castro.  It will simply allow society to divert their attention away from the real problem of evil that is present in their own lives, inconveniently.  For those who realize such things, I offer them The Symposium.  The way to beat evil is to combat it directly and to spit in its eye and prevent it from hiding in the shadows of guilt, apathy, and lazy neglect.  Evil must be defeated if the human race hopes to continue, and no government on earth can achieve such a feat no matter how much money they spend on the attempt.  The combat of evil comes from the ability to first determine right from wrong and assess value.  Then there must be a will to confront it.  Without such things, evil will continue to hide right in front of our faces, and more Amanda Berrys’ will remain chained in basements, tied to bed posts, and taken from loving families and sold into modern slavery until such a will is present in the human race.  It all starts with recognizing evil for evil, and having the courage to confront it without fear.


This is how desensitized we have all become. It’s an accepted practice…………….and it is evil.



Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 12, 2013 17:00

May 11, 2013

I.R.S. Apology to the Tea Party: NOT ACCEPTED by me–I want my Saturday back!

Ok, so the IRS has apologized for harassing Tea Party groups by admitting that they singled them out for analysis, especially in southern Ohio.  Big deal!  Where do the people slandered by the IRS go to get back their reputations?  Where does the leadership of these Tea Party groups go to retrieve all their countless hours of correspondence with the IRS in an attempt at compliance?  And where do I go to get back an entire Saturday that I had to spend on a stupid IRS compliance demand?  But more than anybody harassed by the IRS was my friend Justin Binik-Thomas.  Justin told me of his ordeal first at a special meeting we had for some of my most intense Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom readers a year ago at a local pizza place where we blocked off the entire back room and discussed what to do about the harassment of the IRS.  Click here to review and see pictures from that event.



As Justin communicated with me his thoughts on the IRS revelation on May 10, 2013 he had just wrapped up a very busy day with the media finishing up with ABC World News Tonight, among many other television news programs.  He was far from “satisfied” and I couldn’t blame him.  Here is the prior article about the issue with the IRS and Justin.




·        http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/377566


Here is an article from The Cincinnati Enquirer about the apology from May 10th. 


·        http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130510/NEWS/305100131?nclick_check=1


In essence, Justin was telling the media:


* Reaching out to liberty groups and tea party groups is political in nature – an affront to liberty.  I accept the organization (IRS) has a policy against it, but would like to know what actions are taken to assure this does not recur.


* Asking a group about a tax status, unless politically motivated, is ok.  What leadership does in their free time is of no relevance to what the organization does.  Asking about an individual, particularly an unrelated individual, is troubling.  What purpose could it serve?   Why was that individual, me in this case, not contacted or informed of outreach?


* As of writing I have not received anything in writing from the IRS besides the initial denial.  It would be nice to receive an apology and to receive assurance it will not happen again and that responses, if any, will not be held against me the individual.



 The IRS had attacked the Liberty Township Tea Party out of blind speculation that they were involved with Justin Binik-Thomas as he was a founding member of the Cincinnati Tea Party and the assumption was that the Liberty Township group had a way of getting to Thomas.  So Liberty Township was maliciously selected for “enforcement.”  This essentially meant that the leadership at Liberty Township had to jump through any hoops the IRS decided like mere animals doing tricks for their livelihoods.  One of the targets of this IRS inquiry were videos I made featuring Sheriff Jones discussing immigration reform and another I put together featuring the current congressional violations against the 10th Amendment.



I felt bad that my videos were under scrutiny and that some of my antics had gotten other people in trouble with the IRS.  At one point in the early winter of 2013 I told some of that leadership just to blame the videos on me, that I was the sole owner of their content, and that I’d deal with the agents on my own.  The Liberty Township group did a stand-up job of dealing with the IRS and took care of the situation, which was much more gracious than I was willing to provide, which probably saved a lot more headache.  I provided the information the IRS was looking for, and once all those leads went nowhere, the IRS backtracked.


The entire witch hunt started as a direct assault on Justin, and the IRS was simply using mass peer pressure to force Thomas to comply, or back off his Tea Party actions.  The IRS was essentially harassing the Liberty Township Tea Party as a way to get at the nerves of Justin Binik-Thomas, and that is not just wrong, it was criminal.  So the apology from the IRS is nice, but way too late.  It also hints at something else that is amiss.


I am very suspicious of government.  I think of even the best of their representatives as habitual liars and con artists.  I wouldn’t trust them to walk a dog on an empty leash.  So their timing on this apology is actually alarming.  The first thought that came to my mind is why are they doing it?  And, why now?



Using pure deduction, based on the behavior of government in the past, the same government that lied under oath many times in the past declaring that the IRS did not do the things they just admitted to doing, I would say that the IRS as a member of the federal government is employing the old “bend but don’t break” defensive football strategy.  The government knows that they are guilty over the Benghazi situation and are caught in a serious lie.  They know that the Tea Party is still full of members that are very active and highly charged even after the re-election of Barack Obama.  The government knows that there is an active campaign to remove Republican Governor Kasich from office in the next primaries for turning against the Tea Party, so they fear what might happen to them if the Tea Party gets even more detail out of the Benghazi hearings, which have been carried on Fox News, and extensively by The Blaze Network.  The Blaze is a huge supporter of the Tea Party movement and it is getting bigger by the day.  The IRS of course knows all this since they have the ability to pry into all our lives at will in the name of “revenue” for the always hungry government.  During the Benghazi hearings The Blaze website had over 15 million unique visitors, which is a lot of Americans looking for the truth.  So I contend that the IRS is taking a calculated move in relation to the rest of the government and yielding a little to the Tea Party in hopes of taking the edge off the really bad stuff coming out of the modern-day Watergate—which is Benghazi.



This is the trouble with a “collective” organization who thinks more like an ant colony protecting the “queen” than a society of free individuals.  The IRS understands what their brothers and sisters are going through in Washington D.C. regarding Benghazi, and they are hoping to take the edge off the story with a nice little monumental revelation that seems so scandalous that it sucks the life out of the Benghazi story.  But so what—what is anybody going to do to the IRS?  So what if the IRS breaks the law and pisses off the Tea Party, what do they care if they make anybody angry?  They revealed they lied in testimony, and that they actually target individuals whom they politically disagree with.  So their admission means nothing, it gets played on the news and it makes many Tea Party members believe—falsely—that “the government” is coming around, that they are trying to be good, and honest for a change wishing to redeem themselves for sins of the past—which is far from the truth.


Experience tells me that the behavior of the IRS indicates a bigger fish to fry just outside of perception, and the attempt to throw the world off the scent is the real strategy of this sudden revelation by the IRS. So it would be my advice to those who read here frequently to not take your foot off the throats of those who seek to rule over you.  Instead, push down and do not become distracted with this petty admission.  I know Justin doesn’t feel happy about spending the last two years targeted personally by the IRS just because he existed.  I know the Liberty Township Tea Party would like to have back the dozen or so 2 hour meetings they had to deal with just IRS compliance measures.  And as for my time, where do I get back my Saturday that I wasted making DVD copies of my published videos so some pin head at the IRS can have hard copies of evidence gathered from the Liberty Township Tea Party?  The answer is that I don’t, the IRS stole my time for no reason, and they don’t care one bit about it.  Their apology is not one of sincerity, but of further cover-up of the many sins coming out of Washington D.C.  One of my Saturday’s is more valuable and productive than the entire IRS building full of people over any given year.  Every minute of my life creates jobs, hopes, and fulfills dreams for others, so wasted time on the IRS takes those things away from others which are why they are such a bad organization whose only primary role is wealth-redistribution.



The shocking revelation by the IRS is not out of goodness, but to cover up further deceit.  For them to show humility toward Justin Binik-Thomas who was the real target behind the Cincinnati IRS probes is in the hope that the Tea Party becomes too compassionate to press on with the much more destructive injustices that are hidden just beyond sight.  The General Petraeus affair was made of the same type of distractions.  The tactical General was planning to retire anyway, so why not throw a juicy story to the hungry wolves hunting a guilty government in order to throw them off the trail?  But the Tea Party didn’t take the bait and run back to their caves to eat the meat as hoped.  Instead they sniffed and determined that the target was insignificant—and pressed on toward the real villain.  Just the other day Obama declared to students at Ohio State that they “should not listen to these anti-government” groups.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain—was essentially what he meant.   Government is feeling the pressure from the Tea Party and the strain is showing.  Government knows they are guilty—all of them—of serious crimes, much more so than the situation of targeting Tea Party groups of tax exempt status then lying about it.  And it is on those crimes that everyone must remain focused—which is what’s happening.



One of the Liberty Township Tea Party members in that leadership group most affected by the IRS inquiry released a statement which I will now provide on the matter.  It’s from Mark Etterling, and articulates the problem very well, and provides insight to the next steps that are to come.  Mark’s thoughts reflect my own.



An IRS spokesperson recently issued a verbal apology to the various Tea Party and Patriot groups whom they had specifically targeted for extreme scrutiny over their applications for 501C3 tax exempt status.  Even though I can’t speak for our group, which happened to be one of those that was targeted, or any of the other groups for that matter, I can at least issue my own personal response.  Your apology is NOT accepted.  In fact, I’m willing to go so far in my response as to say that I would personally like to see those responsible not only fired, but also brought up on both criminal as well as civil charges for violating our civil rights via a direct abuse of power.


 


Exactly one month ago I wrote a commentary stating that I was fed up with all the bogus mea culpa’s.  An apology based on an accident is one thing.  However, an apology that is derived solely from being caught committing overt actions related to a political agenda is something else entirely.  An apology isn’t enough after a school suspends a kid over eating a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun just so that the administrators can push a gun control agenda.  Using the IRS to exercise extreme scrutiny against specific political groups is nothing more than an overt attempt to curtail the opposing voices of those groups.  Therefore, an apology doesn’t cut it there either.


 


Those that are currently in power like to scoff at those of us who protest against what we view as tyrannical actions by claiming we are simply being paranoid.  However, if you look up the Merriam-Webster definition of Tyranny it’s easy to see that bringing the full power and weight of the IRS to bear on a specific political group for the sole purpose of stifling their oppositional viewpoint fits the very definition of tyranny.


 


3: a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force


4: an oppressive, harsh, or unjust act : a tyrannical act


 


I’m not acting out of hypocrisy just because this happens to be an incident that struck home for me.  In fact, in the book I wrote two years ago I specifically stated that even though I disagree with almost everything liberals like Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow ever say, I would still fight for their right to speak no matter how much I disagree with them.  The reason is that freedom and censorship cannot coexist.  The presence of one will automatically destroy the other.  A person cannot profess a love of freedom and yet practice a tolerance of those things that destroy freedom at the same time.  Therefore, your choice is to either tolerate the abuse of tyrannical censorship, or be as outraged about this as I am.  I would suggest that no matter what your political leanings you should think about this carefully and choose wisely.  Otherwise, the next time you might find yourself being on the wrong end of such tactics yourself where the tyrants will have already chosen for you.










 







Mark Etterling, Liberty Township



Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 11, 2013 17:00

May 10, 2013

A Little Black Walnut Tree–’Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal’

My wife and I transplanted a Black Walnut tree in our yard during August of 2012 knowing that the little tree would struggle.  August is a bad time of year in Ohio to move any kind of living thing that grows in the soil, but to compound matters there was a drought in August that year which meant we had to constantly water it.  Then just six weeks later, the tree had already been looking withered when it suffered through the first frost of the year.  Looking at the bits of ice accumulated on the tiny stump of a tree, I thought that was the end of its life.  The little budding leaves shriveled up and fell off within days.  All through October, November and December I looked at the little stump for a sign of life but there wasn’t any.  So the plan was that we’d dig it back up in the spring and find a replacement.  But as March came, then April I held out hope that the little tree would show some sign of life.  Then, in the fourth week of April, little buds sprang out at the base of the tree.  It was trying to grow again.



About the time that I was watching this tree I was reading Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal on my front porch.  I immediately drew a metaphoric parallel between capitalism represented by the little tree and the cruel nasty world that was trying to kill it represented by socialism.  I thought of socialism because we had to remove the tree from where it was growing naturally as I was worried about mowing over it with the lawn mower.  Landscaped yards always remind me of socialism as they are planned associations of plants in relationships concocted by the owner of a property that may not naturally be compatible.  We had moved the tree to save the tree which brought to my mind George W. Bush’s famous socialist quote “I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market.”  If I had not removed the tree, it would have died.  But why did I have to move the tree—because I desired that my landscaping look a certain way.  It wasn’t the poor little tree’s fault; it was just trying to live where a seed had fallen.  As the dictator of my property, I can decide what lives and dies.  My plants do not have freedom from me.  They are completely reliant upon my compassion to keep them alive or to kill them at my discretion.  That is why landscaping to me always reminds me of a planned society resembling socialism.



I tend to let things grow where they want to as much as possible, as they do in nature.  I don’t like to tamper and trim too much unnecessarily, because I like the plants on my property to know that they have a certain amount of freedom to do as they please, and that I will let them.  That also tends to be my leadership tendency when I have to lead others; I let them do their thing as much as possible as long as it doesn’t violate my overall vision.  But the vision is always mine, and if something or someone gets in the way of that vision, they get cut down ruthlessly.  That is the way of nature.



But that is not how it is supposed to be in a free country with free people.   The government is not the people’s gardeners.  The government is not supposed to transplant trees, cut the grass, and plant flowers just because they think such arrangements look pretty, or are pleasant esthetically.  The government is not supposed to move businesses around, tamper with people’s cultures for bloc voting advantage, or pick winners and losers in enterprise.  They are not supposed to be involved in health care, otherwise known as the watering of the population, but should allow growth to occur as robust and dynamic as the economy and the minds of the people can allow.  The populations of earth should be allowed to grow to the highest trees of the California Redwoods as opposed to the well manicured trees of a football stadium, where the building is more emphasized visually than the plant growth of the landscaping.



These are the problems that are tackled and solved in Ayn Rand’s classic book about the philosophy of an economy which make excellent arguments in favor of capitalism.  Reading the book felt like discovering an old archeological relic which held the keys to solving most of society’s problems, and finding such material after it had been buried away from man’s eyes for generations.  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a remarkable book written from essays first published in The Objectivist magazine during the 1960s.  Capitalism is The Unknown Ideal because it never really had a chance to get off the ground in America, where the Ideal was invented.  The result to America and to the world has been explosive economic growth that gave every individual operating under capitalism the opportunity to live and thrive based on their own ambitions.



Yet every statist oriented government in the world, which has dominated the human mind for millennia fear capitalism the way a panicky home owner worries that the grass of their well manicured lawns are growing too robust.  For the property owner, it is generally accepted that the trees and every blade of grass on a property are the possessions of the owner.  Governments, princes, princesses, monarchs of every kind, dictators, even United States presidents believe in their heart of hearts that people belong to the “leaders” of a culture in the same way that plant life on a property belongs to the owners and this is the cause of statist governments which find capitalism repulsive.


They fear an unmanaged economy because the evidence is that the growth can quickly overwhelm their property and remind them that it is the plant life that will always outlast their attention and place demands on the property owner–the leaders of statist governments.  The growth of such plant life always threaten to overtake government which is what they fear most, so they diligently cut back any sign of extensive growth like maniacs fearful of their own shadows.  Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal digs into the history of these fears and provides psychological reasoning for them in a way that is unique to this particular book.



Years ago when I studied economics at The University of Cincinnati there was not one mention of this book which had been out to the public for over 25 years at that point.  The economics professor would have had much more success as an instructor if he had not attempted to explain variations of Keynesian economics and the cause and effect of business cycles but had simply taught his class upon the contents of Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.  Those business cycles, depressions, recessions, and all economic growth are caused by statist governments tampering with the robust desire for economic activity to flourish naturally, and without restriction.  To maintain their control, governments are always cutting back on growth to satisfy their aesthetic tendencies which is the cause of most misery in economic development.


The book is incredibly well written, and easy to understand.  But its concepts are contrary to what entire generations of civilization have been taught in their public education establishments and colleges.  So most readers will go through a phase of troubled thought when reading, as they have to unlearn all the garbage that they have been taught over many years, but for the sake of review—in pulling together such remote thoughts into a single metaphor, the little Black Walnut tree and its tenacity at living reminded me of the lessons articulated in the wonderful book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal.  If every human being in the world read just this book, they would find their lives much better off.  This book is the Dead Sea Scrolls of modern economics.  Capitalism has been attacked and transplanted many times by over aggressive statist governments for many years.  It has suffered harsh winters, frosts, lack of nourishment, and abuse of many who want to kill it.  Yet, like any gardener learns when they take an extended vacation, or neglect their yard work, the grass always grows, and the trees spread out their branches.  Capitalism finds a way to grow even under the harshest governments, under the most vicious advocates of socialism.  It keeps crawling its way toward the light in spite of destructive restriction and gardeners who trim their yards to simply exert control over the plant life.  Statist governments control economic activity in the same way, they cut, trim and manipulate to satisfy their vision, not the individual desires of the people who put them into power to begin with.  This is the cause of their failure, and the reason for economic recessions.



The little Black Walnut tree for me currently is my favorite tree in my yard, because it has lived through adversity when I thought it was dead.  It is for me a symbol of the power of capitalism, to tenaciously outlast oppression and survive because of a will to live.  This is the same energy that drives every business in every strip mall, it drives the trains that run our tracks, it drives our entertainment culture, our varieties of food, and other consumable options.  On the way to my motorcycle this very morning as I was leaving my wife was planning out her day.  She was in turmoil as to whether or not to get our groceries from Costco or Wal-Mart, as both places provided unique options.  I told her to visit both, and take the best options from both places.   Thinking selfishly, I enjoy the blackberries that come from Costco.  Their supplier is very good.  But the soda prices at Wal-Mart are better, as they have my stock of Mello Yello always on supply.  This is the power of capitalism.  This is the power of economic growth–freedom of choice.  This is why the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is such a fabulous book that should rest on the bedside of every household in the entire world.  It is the lost and hidden document that can solve all the world’s problems and it is a testament to the human mind to have created such a thing on printed paper.  It is The Unknown Ideal that needs to be known by every living human being for the purpose of not just freedom, but economic prosperity and the necessary step of taking the human mind away from all forms of statism to enter a new age of evolution.  It may be the most important book any reader could ever place their eyes upon.  It has given me special appreciation for my little Black Walnut tree, which now that I can leave it alone, I hope grows to 30’ in height and is filled with squirrels and birds in the not too distant future.


Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 10, 2013 17:00

May 9, 2013

$96 Million Dollars for Darrelle Revis: The Buccanneer Way–excellence in defense

This is a Part II to some of the recent happenings with my favorite football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  CLICK HERE to see Part I which was about Warren Sapp and is needed to understand fully my thoughts about this article covering the $96 million dollar price tag for Darrelle Revis who the Bucs traded away their first round draft pick among other things, to land Revis from the New York Jets.  The leading reason I love Tampa Bay as a football team under the ownership of the Glazers is because they are not afraid to attempt any dynamic to become better.  They are a very interesting organization that is firmly committed to thinking outside the box to at least become a competitive team.  They may not go to the Superbowl every year, but they are always “in the hunt.”  They do not fall in love with coaches or players who do not take the team where they want to go.  For the Buccaneers, who are known for their punishing shut down defenses, they have struggled to maintain that presence since the departure of Warren Sapp in 2004.  They have looked, and drafted and tried many combinations of individual personalities in an attempt to recapture that magic.  If the combination did not work, the Glazers cut their loss and moved on to the next dynamic.



In that regard, the industry of football was shocked that the Buccaneers would be willing to pay $96 million dollars to one person who was not a quarterback.  In professional football, it is simply unheard of to pay that kind of money to one person, especially coming off ACL surgery.  To the world of sports analysis, no single person is worth that kind of money.  Yet for the Glazers in Tampa, who have been searching for a way to give their fans another dominate Buccaneer defense similar to the days of Warren Sapp, it is worth the money to them.  As I’ve said before, American Football is the game of capitalism, and countries who favor socialism do not understand why Americans love it so much.  Soccer is the game of socialism, which is why almost every country that plays soccer as their national identity, have an economic system of socialism blowing the wind in their sails.  With that perspective, Darrelle Revis is simply the best defensive player in the NFL and the Buccaneers wanted him, so they paid the money to get him.  Revis set his value at such a high figure by being the best, and anybody who wants to enjoy his services can pay the money.  That is how capitalism works. In this case, Revis gets the kind of money that being the best defensive NFL player for 6 years can garner, and the Bucs get a player that should be able to return the team to the number one defense in the league category.   Revis was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on April 21, 2013 signing a six-year contract worth $96 million, making him the highest paid defensive back in NFL history.[63] The Jets received the Buccaneers’ 2013 first round pick (13th overall) and a 2014 fourth round conditional pick, which can become a third round pick.


For those in the world who wish to believe that anybody, or any player if they have a good coach, or school to teach them, can become a player like Darrelle Revis due to institutional merit, they are sadly mistaken.  Revis is great because of his individual effort.   Revis was born to former high school track star Diana Gilbert and Darryl Revis.[64] Revis is the nephew of former NFL defensive lineman Sean Gilbert.[65] Revis’ high school accolades include the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2003 Player of the Year, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2003 WPIAL Class AA Player of the Year, and 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Fabulous 22”.


In the PIAA Class AA State Championship football game, he led Aliquippa to a come-from-behind 32–27 win over Northern Lehigh by scoring 5 touchdowns including 3 rushing touchdowns, a punt return, and the return of a blocked Northern Lehigh field goal attempt. He also completed a 39 yard pass, had a reception, and an interception in the game.[7]


In his junior and senior years of high school he led Aliquippa to WPIAL basketball championships, leading the team in scoring both years, culminating with a 25.2 PPG average his senior season. He also had the most interceptions out of any cornerback for high school.  He would go on to become a dominant player in college and then in the NFL earning him the reputation of Revis Island referring to the part of the football field that he covers.  He is the prototype of the “shutdown” cornerback.



In Tampa Bay, they suffered through a season during 2012 that had them losing most of their games by 7 points or less.  They had the offensive weapons, they had a top ranking running defense, they had wonderful special teams, but they could not stop the pass.  They had lost a number of players over the years at cornerback and just could not find the right combination.  Teams learned about halfway through the 2012 season that the Bucs could be beaten if they went over the top and threw over their very good defensive lineman, and linebackers.  And that’s what happened.  All the Bucs could hope to do was win games by out-scoring their opponents, because they couldn’t stop them.  This was an uncharacteristic element for a Glazer team known for their staunch commitment to defense. So it was well-known that they would address the issue in the upcoming off-season.  But few thought they’d be willing to spend so much money to address the situation.


The Bucs are taking a chance with Revis, and Darrelle appears to understand it all too well.  Coming off an ACL surgery is risky, and for the Bucs to spend so much money on a damaged player speaks volumes as to what they value in Revis’ head as opposed to his physical skill.  But for them, the marketplace was a perfect fit.  Darrelle with the Jets had carried the entire team on his back, but in Tampa, he will have a tremendous amount of help.  He should thrive under the ownership of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but only time will tell, however, the Glazers deserve credit.  They are not just looking for a cornerback to cover 45% of a football backfield.  They are looking for a leader at the level they had with Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Derrick Brooks who played on the field at the same time.



The Revis trade articulates how much value one person on a team can be.  Individuals are not interchangeable.  While teams do involve coordination of many individuals to accomplish a task, it is individuals of exceptional character and skill who raise the bar from mediocrity to “excepetionalism.”  The Buccaneers expect out of Revis exceptionalism and it is worth the money to them to get it.  It is fun to root for a team ownership who is willing to commit so much money to one player to obtain not only victories, but a culture that is known to the entire city of Tampa—as a dedication to “DEFENSE” as it was established in the years leading up to their Superbowl win of 2003.  Even if the experiment turns out to be a bust—which I don’t think it will I am proud to support the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because of their willingness to embark on such experiments.  I am proud to wear their merchandise, to fly their flags, and watch their games.  The Glazers work hard to give me a product I can enjoy and they value the art of capitalism to a level that I don’t see in any other NFL team.  That commitment is all over the Revis trade, and for that I am extremely excited for the upcoming 2013 season.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun year to be a Buc fan!


Game day at the Hoffman House is a fun day for my family.  I put on quite an extravaganza for every game.  During the fall, the game can be heard streaming from my garage on the radio broadcast from Tampa and the televisions inside my house are on the game as I monitor the details over computer screens.  I thoroughly enjoy Tampa Bay Football games, and this year there will be more to cheer for than there has been in a long time.  For me, the cheers are not so much for points scored, but for points prevented as I cheer for a return of the great Buccaneer defenses of the past, and the rise of a new age of The Buccaneer Way that will raise the bar for the entire NFL, and drive the American economy with a wonderful example of capitalism at its finest in a game only understood by free people in free lands who love to sip beer and eat chicken wings as the leaves outside our windows begin to fall.


It’s the Buccaneer Way!



Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 09, 2013 17:00

May 8, 2013

Warren Sapp: The Quarterback Killa’ and “Hall of Famer”

One of the best examples of pure capitalism in American culture is Professional Football.  In the rest of the world where socialism is a much stronger presence, soccer is the game of choice and the differences between soccer and American football are extremely obvious, and have been discussed here before.  However, within the game of football there are wonderful examples of teams that are very good and teams that are not.  On this issue I have never been shy to proclaim my love of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and since Ronde Barber has announced his official retirement, I want to spend some time reflecting on the Bucs.  I love that team because the owners are the kind of people who are always striving for quality, perfection, and innovative dynamics.  The Bucs are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum as opposed to a team like the Cincinnati Bengals from my home town who are run by terrible ownership.  The differences between these two teams are just as profound as those between a statist government and a capitalist one.  The Bengals are run by a top-heavy, power-hungry dictator while the Buccaneers are run by a generally hands off bunch of pure capitalists who are performance based.  My love of American football therefore has nothing to do with sports for the sake of evasion, mental distraction or statistical accumulation to be discussed during business relationships.  My love of football is because it always gives me wonderfully dynamic examples of the trouble between statism and capitalism as economic systems.  And for the Buccaneers there was never a player in American football who exemplified why I love Tampa Bay more than Warren Sapp who has just been inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame at a very early age in the balloting.  Yet more than that, on a Monday Night Football game against the rival Miami Dolphins in November of 2013 Warren’s number will be retired and Sapp will be placed on the Buccaneer Ring of Honor in the house that he built at Raymond James Stadium.



The trouble with statist governments that are philosophically built on the premise of socialism is that they attempt to operate without defining who the best among them are.  Their goal is to determine how they can pull down—or mooch off of others to establish equality among all human beings.  But in American football, teams like the ones that the Glazers build are always on the lookout for the “exceptional” individuals who will elevate them into victories.  Since the Buccaneers parted ways with Warren Sapp way back in 2004 due to his expensive price tag but aging performance the Bucs have tried to duplicate the kind of teams they had while Warren Sapp played for them, especially during the years of 1997 to his release in 2004.  Sapp was an emotional leader who increased the performance of everyone around him, so he was the key ingredient to the Buccaneers classic shut down defense.  Broadcasters, coaches, NFL owners, agents and anybody else in the business of professional football tend to believe in statistics using purely mathematical analysis believing falsely that people like Warren Sapp could be easily replaced by new number one draft picks, but even though the Bucs have been very aggressive in trading out coaches, players, and any dynamic they could find with a wonderful facility at One Buc Place in Tampa which watches virtually every college player in the entire country, they have not found another Warren Sapp.  They’ve been looking, but there just hasn’t been one.



High school sports coaches in every school in the country have failed to produce another Warren Sapp.  Out of the thousands of potential defensive tackles, another Warren Sapp has not emerged in the NFL.  But why?  Well, the answer is one that I talk about all the time and with Sapp there is not a better example in professional sports.


Sapp’s mother worked three jobs, yet was always there to wake him up to go to school.  She set in his mind a work ethic that made Sapp a monster on the practice field.  But while his mom was always working and wasn’t home much to care for him, Sapp played football all the time with his older brothers who did everything they could to restrict their younger sibling.  Warren Sapp being a young man with an extremely vicious temper and a yearning to win, never let his older brothers suppress his spirit.  He worked hard to become bigger, stronger, and faster than anybody else.  And if he found that he came up against those who were bigger, stronger, or faster than he was, then he would beat them with superior will-power.



Sapp went on to become a dominate football player at his high school in a suburb of Orlando then was a dominant player at the University of Miami.  He was drafted by the Bucs in 1995 at the start of the Glazer era by Sam Wyche—a man who was nearly as colorful as a coach as Sapp was as a player.  Wyche used to be the head coach for the Bengals before Mike Brown took over the team upon his father’s death.  Sam Wyche was responsible for the famous, “you don’t live in Cleveland” speech to the entire stadium.  Wyche didn’t last long under the statist like Mike Brown, so he became the coach in Tampa back in 1992.  Wyche had some success in Tampa, and was responsible for many of the draft picks that built the team who would go on to win the Superbowl a few years later.  After five years of not taking the Buccaneers to championship form, the Glazers cut Wyche and hired Tony Dungy.  It was under Tony that Sapp found a mentor that was perfect for his personality, and the Buccaneers became arguably the best defense in the NFL for a number of years.


 Sapp is one of only six defensive players in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl, be named Defensive Player of the Year, and win a Super Bowl or NFL title. The others are Joe GreeneJack LambertLawrence TaylorReggie White and Sapp’s former teammate, Derrick Brooks. He is now reckoned as the prototype three-technique defensive tackle; ever since his retirement NFL teams scouting defensive tackles have reportedly been looking for a “Baby Sapp.”[6]


He was selected to 7 Pro Bowls, was named a First-Team All-Pro four times and a Second-Team All-Pro twice, while adding a spot on the 1990s and 2000s All-Decade Teams and, most impressively, earning Defensive Player of the Year honors after an amazing 16.5-sack season in 1999. Sapp was a key player for the imposing Buc defenses of the late ’90s and early ’00s, truly the cog that made that defense go.



Sapp played the game of football like a gladiator in a Roman arena.  He relished the combat of daily play and always understood that for every admirer, he had many who wanted to take him down, so he never let his guard relax on or off the field.  He was often careful to eat food in restaurants in towns where the Buccaneers visited as he was concerned that enemies of his might tamper with his health and he had practice customs before each game that involved skipping through the enemy team’s side of the field to show his dominance over them before a game.  Warren Sapp was geared up for conflict at all hours of every day and he relished it.  It made him better, stronger and faster, a regiment that had started with his mother who worked hard 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and older brothers who constantly challenged him.  Sapp had an extremely colorful career with the Buccaneers and a fighting spirit that other players like Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Mike Alstott, and many others would rally behind to become one of the most animated, and technically proficient sports teams to ever take a field.  But it all started with the extreme charisma of an individual in Warren Sapp which led to many controversies.


Mike Sherman confrontation


On November 24, 2002, at Raymond James Stadium, Sapp drew criticism for a cheap shot on the Green Bay Packers‘ Chad Clifton during an interception return by the Buccaneers. Clifton was jogging down field, away from the main action, and was blindsided by Sapp. Clifton suffered a severe pelvic injury on the play.[10] The hit sent Clifton to the hospital. He was hospitalized for almost a week and could not walk unaided for five more weeks. In 2005, the NFL Competition Committee agreed on new guidelines for “unnecessary roughness”, making hits such as that suffered by Clifton illegal.


In an exchange caught by television cameras following the game, Packers’ coach Mike Sherman approached Sapp and said to him, “That was a chicken shit play.”[11] In response, Sapp screamed repeatedly at Sherman: “You’re so tough? Put on a fucking jersey!”[10] Sherman later called Sapp “a lying, shit-eating hound. … If I was 25 years old and didn’t have a kid and a conscience, I would have given him an ass-kicking right there at the 30-yard line.”[10] Sherman later said of Sapp: “The joviality that existed after [the hit] when a guy’s lying on the ground, with numbness in his legs and fingers, I just thought that wasn’t appropriate for any NFL player.”[11]


The skipping incidents


During pre-game warm-ups of a December 23, 2002 Monday Night Football game at Raymond James Stadium, Warren skipped among the Pittsburgh Steelers players during their pre-game warmups. Steelers running back Jerome Bettis shoved Sapp, and this was followed by a heated argument between the two teams. Sapp felt that he was made an example by the NFL by being fined for that first skipping incident. “That’s all this is about,” said Sapp. “In my nine years in this league, no one’s been fined for verbally abusing officials. It’s unprecedented.”[12] The Buccaneers had been earlier ridiculed by Steelers’ Lee Flowers as being “paper champions.” Despite losing to the Steelers in that game, Sapp and the Buccaneers went on to win Super Bowl XXXVII five weeks later.


In 2003, during an October 6 Monday Night Football game against the Indianapolis Colts, Sapp was scolded for skipping through and disrupting the Colts players, who were spread out on the field, stretching during pre-game warmups. There was much anticipation and national interest going into the game, which was the return of former head coach Tony Dungy to Tampa. The Colts wound up erasing a 21-point deficit in the final four minutes, and defeated the Buccaneers 38-35 in overtime, initiating a downslide for the defending champions.


A week later, on October 12, 2003, prior to the game against the Washington Redskins, Sapp was running onto the field when he bumped into an NFL referee. The incident drew a fine of $50,000. Sapp’s response to the fine: “It’s a slave system. Make no mistake about it. Slave master say you can’t do it, don’t do it. They’ll make an example out of you.”[13]


Ejection for unsportsmanlike conduct


On December 23, 2007, Sapp was involved in an altercation with NFL referees near the end of the second quarter of the Raiders’ game at Jacksonville.[14]


The incident began when linesman Jerry Bergman mistakenly assumed that the Raiders wished to decline a Jacksonville 10-yard penalty. Sapp, the defensive captain, began speaking with referee Jerome Boger, indicating that the Raiders instead wished to accept the penalty. The conversation became heated, with Sapp gesturing and swearing. This resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct call by Boger against Sapp. Sapp and his defensive teammates continued interacting with the officials after the penalty was called, resulting in a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Sapp and another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty assessed against teammate Derrick Burgess. Finally, the coaches and officiating staff entered the field and began physically separating and removing the arguing players. Boger claimed that during this time Sapp “bumped” him; Sapp denies making physical contact. Regardless, at this point Boger levied a third unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Sapp and ejected him from the game. Sapp did not play in the second half and was eventually fined $75,000 by the NFL; Burgess received a $25,000 fine.[15]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Sapp


Being the best took its toll on Sapp.  He made a lot of mistakes off the field, particularly with women.  He had nobody in his life who could prepare him for what society would do to him while being the best.  He was playing a capitalist game, but the society at large was hell-bent on socialism leaving them empty husks looking to be filled by his beaming personality.  Naturally women threw themselves at him and he accepted causing him and his wife to separate in 2003.  The alimony to all the mothers of his children would eventually bankrupt him once his playing days were over in 2008.  His hard life and multitude of enemies had caught up with him.  As a player who had once had millions of dollars in his pockets, had less than $1000 dollars in his bank account in April of 2012 when he had to finally file for bankruptcy.  Warren’s big problem is that he failed to understand that the world would mooch off him to the extent that they had, and he did not put a stop to it with the same aggression he displayed on the football field.



But he wouldn’t be the first, and he won’t be the last to find that the world is filled with personalities who attach themselves to strong individuals for safety, security and just a fragment of charisma.  They will take, and take and take until there isn’t anything left of such people—and once they’ve done that—they will kick you to the curb and look for someone else to loot, pillage, and crush.  That is the ways of socialism, especially in modern America where a mixed economy allows such things to occur.  When people like Warren Sapp who have hearts as big as their tempers and try to do so much for so many people, but fail to recognize that there is no way to ever stop the perils of socialism when the methods of capitalism are removed from their lives, then the game is truly over.  And for Warren Sapp, it ended in bankruptcy.


But Sapp is a fighter, and he has gotten right back up again from his hard fall in the post football era of his life.  As terrible as the news for him was in 2012 he is now a Hall of Famer during his first year of eligibility and he will now be in the famed Buccaneers Ring of Honor.  He is being brought back into the culture of the Glazer Buccaneers to mentor young players into emulating him so that the Bucs can rise once again to the kind of team it was under his previous leadership.  I have often said I would rather have a man like Warren Sapp on the sideline even if he was a quadriplegic—just for his mind and passion than a whole army of first-round draft picks.  I’d take Warren Sapp for my football team as just a talking head before I’d take a team full of Heisman Trophy winners any day of the week.  Warren Sapp is that special of an individual.



So Warren, I will be there with you when you get your Ring of Honor.  I will be watching.  You are a very special person, especially to my daughter and me.  I have thrown televisions out the front window of my house watching you play for the Buccaneers in anger over calls made against your actions.  I have jumped so hard in my living room that I have cracked the ceiling punching it after one of your sacks.  I have yelled myself hoarse after Buccaneer games that you played.  I have rooted for you as an individual spark that ignited a Buccaneer domination of the NFL and it is because of this era that I still hang a banner dedicated to the Buccaneers in the foyer of my home to greet all who enter.  My daughter and I have enjoyed your life so far and we look forward to many more years of your entertainment.  I watch the NFL commentaries just to see what you have to say because I trust your opinions over those who do not think with the same passion, and determination.   You played the game the way I think and for that I will always be grateful.


Football is a game of capitalism.  What happened to Warren Sapp is his fault in that he didn’t recognize that socialism rules the world outside of a football field, and he discovered tragically that his beaming personality and wonderful work ethic could not generate the kind of income he had become accustom to without a football field under his feet.  When he was allowed to be a gladiator in the arena, the world was his for the taking, and he took it, but outside the stadium, the world took from him, and he gave it away thinking that his dynamic personality and work ethic could always provide what he needed.  But it didn’t.  However, a part of him will always be hanging in Raymond James Stadium, so in a way, Warren Sapp will return to the arena of football to stay.  The Buccaneers will never let another player wear the number of Warren Sapp again—and they never should.  Because it is unlikely that another player like Warren will ever take to the field again, because he was one of a kind, and still is.



You can visit Warren Sapp personally at his website by clicking the link below.


http://www.qbkilla.com/



Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 08, 2013 17:00

May 6, 2013

‘Surfin’ Bird’ by The Trashmen: A song only America could produce

I have always been fascinated as to why some songs, especially the one below titled, “Surfin’ Bird by The Trashmen have been so popular.  My thoughts are that as our culture had for the first time in known history achieved the ability to broadcast, and produce entertainment of a leisure nature, that mankind started at the primordial concepts of audio and visual stimulation.  It is not always important to music listeners whether or not they understand the contents of a song so long as the beat is catchy.  The result has been a tendency for entire cultures to mouth words to songs they have no idea as to the meaning. They turn off their minds, and all logic it might produce to enjoy the collective rhythm of a hearty tune.  For me, the finest example of this type of thing is “Surfin’ Bird, which is one of the songs that I like to play on my iPod as I travel 100 MPH down the highway on my motorcycle.  There is something very energetic about the music that makes weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds very entertaining.



But what does any of that mean?  Well, the short history found on Wikipedia says that “Surfin’ Bird” was a song performed by the American surf rock band The Trashmen, and it is also the name of the album that featured this hit single. It was released in 1963 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] It is a combination of two R&B hits by The Rivingtons: “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” and “The Bird’s the Word”,[2] which was influenced by Red Prysock‘s “What’s the word? Thunderbird!” [3]


It is likely that Surfin’ Bird’s derives from a radio ad jingle advertising Thunderbird as a brand of cheap wine: “What’s the word? Thunderbird. How’s it sold? Good and cold. What’s the jive? Bird’s alive. What’s the price? Thirty twice.”[4] The jazz release that reflects common knowledge of this jingle is titled, “What’s The Word? Thunderbird!” and was issued in record form as Mercury 71214 in October 1957.[5] This release was written by Wilbur Prysock, and performed by Red Prysock.


The Rivingtons followed up their Billboard Hot 100 hit Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow with the similar The Bird’s the Word in 1963. The Trashmen had not heard this version but saw a band called The Sorensen Brothers playing it.[2] They decided to play the song that night at their own gig. During this first performance, drummer and vocalist Steve Wahrer stopped playing and ad-libbed the “Surfin’ Bird” middle section.[2] Despite not knowing “The Bird’s the Word” was a Rivingtons song, the similarity to “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” was obvious and The Trashmen added the chorus to the end of their new track.


A local disc jockey, Bill Diehl, was at the gig and convinced the band to record the track.[2] It was recorded at Kay Bank Studios inMinneapolis. Diehl entered it into a local battle of the bands competition and it won. It was then sent to a battle of the bands competition in Chicago where it also won.[2] This led to the group being signed to Garrett Records with the single being quickly released. It reportedly sold 30,000 copies in its first weekend[2] before going on to national success, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, authorship is credited to Al Frazier, Carl White, Sonny Harris, and Turner Wilson Jr.—the four members of The Rivingtons—after the group successfully sued The Trashmen on grounds of plagiarism.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfin’_Bird


In a lot of ways Surfin’ Bird reflects the many turbulent times that were headed for America.  It is a song that makes little sense and is just fun for the spontaneity of it.  As described, it was constructed without much thought from a mixed up number of sources to be thrown together for a public not hungry for thought, but for pure entertainment.



I love the song for its energy.  But I find its non-thinking dangerous.  It reflects accurately what is going on in our public education system, in our entertainment culture, in our social habits, in virtually every human endeavor.  The trend is to surrender thought to impulse which is an animal trait that is the wrong way for the human race to migrate toward.  The jingle is seductively cleaver which pulls the mind into accepting random nonsense with no meaning whatsoever.  Songs like this prepare the mind to accept nonsense.


Most who read this will declare that I should loosen up and just enjoy life.    I should just listen to Surfin’ Bird and ride my motorcycle 100 MPH through heavy traffic with my iPod turned up all the way and not worry about such things.  But for me that’s no fun.  I like to understand how things work and why, and the reason that songs like Surfin’ Bird are so loved is a subject of study that needs to be understood.  The reality is that it reflected a time in America where our culture was under attack by communism in our college campuses by KGB infiltrators and the constant threat of nuclear war with either Cuba or the Soviet Union turned America from World War II patriotism to Vietnam era passivism.  Not knowing what to do and having a new media culture to reflect the nation’s values songs like Surfin’ Bird were tossed out to the public in a way that only capitalism could have produced to bring American culture something only it could produce—a stupid song, about nothing that is still better than anything else the world was otherwise able to produce.



I suppose that is why I like the song so much, because it represents to me that even when America attempts to do something ridiculously stupid, it still comes out wonderfully.  It is the original Gangnum Style song that hits a primal cord of rebellion even though it is laced with thoughtlessness. Stripped down to its bare essence Surfin’ Bird is about hope and enterprise.  It could have never been produced by a communist country and is an example that only through capitalism–a song made up almost on the spot and recorded in a little studio in Minneapolis having absolutely nothing to say artistically, or culturally–is still better than anything else the rest of the world produced—which says a lot.


Now, I am going to get on my motorcycle and listen to Surfin’ Bird about 10,000 times over and over again!


Rich Hoffman


166701_584023358276159_1119605693_n “If they attack first………..blast em’!”


www.tailofthedragonbook.com








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Published on May 06, 2013 17:00